Pocono-area police have trained for school attacks

Pocono police and school officials say they have plans and policies in place to help prevent the kind of mass shooting like the one that occurred in Connecticut on Friday.

CHAD SMITH

Pocono police and school officials say they have plans and policies in place to help prevent the kind of mass shooting like the one that occurred in Connecticut on Friday.

And in the case of police, they say they are trained to quickly neutralize a gunman in a school building.

"Believe me, we are prepared to handle such emergencies, and we continually sharpen our skills and drill for these kinds of situations," said Capt. Brian Kimmins of Stroud Area Regional Police.

Kimmins said that one of the best strategies that SARP has to combat an active shooter is the "rapid response" strategy.

This strategy was developed after the Columbine High School massacre.

Kimmins said that instead of surrounding a building with an active shooter still in it and waiting for a SWAT team to arrive, the first three responding officers are told to enter the building and, in essence, "run toward the sound of gunfire."

The idea is to neutralize the threat as quickly as possible and, it's hoped, save more lives.

Local police departments and their SWAT teams train within actual school buildings, so they know how to operate better in them.

Kimmins said that the SARP SWAT team has conducted drills in Stroudsburg Middle School and is scheduled later this month to tour the newly renovated East Stroudsburg High School South with other members of the force.

This way, SARP will know the layout of the new areas in case of an emergency.

Lt. Chris Wagner of Pocono Mountain Regional Police said his force's SWAT team has been using Coolbaugh Elementary Center as a place to train.

The school was shuttered earlier in the year but still has desks and everything else in it.

Wagner said the school is an ideal place to train for the type of scenarios that occurred Friday.

"We've done a number of active-shooter drills and table-top exercises in the last few years with school districts, sports complexes and other public locations such as Pocono Raceway," he said.

"We make sure the school has an emergency plan and that everyone knows what that plan is."

State Trooper Adam Reed at the state police Harrisburg office said state police has strict guidelines that govern how often to perform drills with local school districts and procedures for performing these drills.

"We have a unit devoted to school security, with troopers at barracks throughout the Commonwealth designated to that purpose," he said.

"We encourage our troopers to be familiar with school layouts in their communities and we work with schools on suggestions to improve security."

At Pleasant Valley School District, district Superintendent Doug Arnold said the district has measures in place to try to prevent or mitigate crises.

Teachers are taught how to respond and protect students in crisis situations, Arnold said.

Plus, a state police trooper is on the school premises at all times, as are several armed guards.

He said that the district goes to great lengths to make sure that the only way people can get access into schools is through the front entrances.

Stroudsburg Area School District Superintendent John Toleno said each school conducts lockdown drills at least twice a year and always at the beginning of the year.

All the buildings in the district are locked, most of them magnetically.

But, he said, you can't anticipate everything.

"No matter how you prepare, there's no way to predict how someone is going to act or what someone is going to do in your buildings," he said. "All you can do is protect your buildings and protect your kids and go from there."

Pocono Record Writers Howard Frank and Andrew Scott contributed to this report.